Posted
by
Soulskillon Monday June 20, 2011 @06:03PM
from the your-death-to-sewer-rats-will-have-a-laugh-track dept.

In 2008 we discussed news of an MMO in an early phase of development that sought to merge two different forms of media: TV shows and video games. Now, reader querbeet points out that work on the game — Defiance — is much further along. Screenshots and an interview with a senior developer provide a clearer image of how such a project will work.
"Both the game and the show take place in a near future, post-apocalyptic version of Earth. ... The game is centered in the remains of San Francisco, while the show will take place in St. Louis. 'They exist within the same universe,' Hill told Ars. 'And primarily where we're going to be different is the fact that things that happen in the game will occur in the show and things that happen in the show will occur in the game. From a global standpoint this could be a large political change, a big environmental change, and they'll happen simultaneously on both.' As an example, Hill said that a character from the show could leave for San Francisco, show up in the game and go on adventures with players, before returning to St. Louis to discuss everything that happened while they were in the game world."

G4 has only two moderately decent shows left ("Attack of the Show" and "X-Play") and even those are just sad shadows of their ZDTV/TechTV predecessors ("Screen Savers" and the original X-Play, back when it aired more than twice a month). Any further downhill and their primetime lineup will consist of "Men Farting," "The Bimbos in Bikinis Power Hour," and "Oww, My Balls!"

This is just a statement on the core concept, but how could they keep the show up to date with the MMO?

Shows require a significant production period - writing, preparation, acting, post-production and editing. In order to have characters reference events in the MMO, the events would have to be written in as particular plot points or relegated to token references (say a shot of a character facing away from the camera and we hear a voice over) that have little or no bearing on the plot.

I agree, the idea is flawed. Though maybe if they have the TV series airing sometime after events in the MMO. Say the MMO starts recording and noting events happening starting in Feb 2012. But the TV series waits till later in the year to start airing episodes. Making the TV series months, behind the actual game. Might be too long to wait for that satisfaction of having a part in the plot, but it also makes room for 3 different demographics: The viewers, the players, and the ones that are actively following

I assume the production methods will resemble something like Sanctuary [wikipedia.org] which Syfy already has going. Actually there have been other shows (and still are) that seem to have found some CG/chromekey techniques. Remember that South Park/WoW cross-over? There's some kid's shows now that seem to be doing some wierd stuff as well combining CG with green screens and live actors. Actually Adult Swim has bunch of that stuff as well.

I assume the "events in the MMO" would be scripted events... the character witnessing the Golden Gate Bridge collapsing, or some such. It wouldn't be a spontaneous, player created event, and would be just as scripted as the TV show.

Damn you murdocj, you just gave away the major plot point for sweeps week in the first season.;)

Other than a core group of players, who's going to be online at the exact moment the episode is aired. I *never* watch anything that's not DVR'd these days... TV conforms to my schedule and not the other way around.

Thinking about it a bit more... they could have events in the MMO with two outcomes (bridge collapse, or the survivors work hard & manage to keep it propped up). They couldn't film two entire episodes & only show one, but they could probably have 5 minutes of the same scenes and just change the dialog... either "amazing how everyone in SF pulled together when they really needed to" or "Well, I guess the collapse was inevitable". If they work it right, it wouldn't be too much trouble but they could

If I were a player, would I have to sign a release, or agree to something, that says they can use my handle in their TV show? I just don't think they are going to take it well when 'ThEBigB@LLA2121!!11!!' seems to be wreaking havoc in San Francisco. Hopefully they have the sense to...ehem...correct any names of players that have significant impact on the universe. But correcting my also be bad as well.

The idea sounds similar to the Pokemon RPGs/Pokemon series. At least when I was a kid and used to watch the show, it roughly followed the storyline of the game (they're all pretty linear games - the only variables are basically which Pokemon you have and which items you picked up), but of course there was no way to time them. You had the opportunity to buy the game, then the series started running, and that was it.

I can see this going all kinds of wrong. "Frank" gives his account of fighting with elements in San Francisco: "It wasn't looking good. We were cornered. Then luvz2sp00g and his unit Serenity Now came to the rescue, using incredibly powerful weapons to take down the aliens. However, I couldn't understand why they stooped over the dead to rub their genitalia in their faces..."

Great. My friends already get glassy-eyed with dismay and start eyeing the exits if I happen to mention WoW or Star Trek in the course of a conversation, and bolt for cover if both happen to come up in the same conversation. Now I can skip to the chase by just mentioning the latest episode of Defiance...